Actual vs. available balance

Checking Account Balance

Your checking account has two kinds of balances, an "actual” and “available” balance. You can review both balances for your account online, at an ATM, by phone, or at a branch. It’s important to understand how the two balances work so you know how much money is in your account at any given time.

Actual balance (or ledger balance) is the amount of money that is actually in your account at any given time. It reflects transactions posted to your account, but not transactions that are pending. While it may seem that the actual balance is the current funds that you can spend, this is not always the case. Holds, fees, purchases, or deposits not yet posted don’t appear in your actual balance.

Available balance is the amount of money in your account including pending transactions. Even if your balance shows enough funds, you can overdraw because of items not yet posted. This includes things like authorized checks, automatic bill payments, or other outstanding transactions.

Transaction processing

Transactions are processed against your account’s available balance. Your actual balance and available balance may be different. Available balance may reflect pending transactions not yet posted to the account. Numerica uses available balance to determine if a transaction will cause overdraft fees.

Transactions may not be processed in the order in which they're made. This is because transactions are presented for payment by merchants. If your account is already overdrawn and multiple transactions get paid, you may be charged more than one fee.